Relationship between Packaging and Consumers buying behaviour

Transcription

1 Relationship between Packaging and Consumers buying behaviour Harinderpal Singh - Assistant professor, Trai Shatabdi Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College, Amritsar, India. - sharinder057@gmail.com Abstract: Packaging is one of the necessities of every product which is available in market. Different types of packaging plays a vital role in the production, storage, distribution and marketing of products. For some companies, packaging could cause differentiation from competitors and be considered as a competitive advantage. Without attractive packaging its become impossible to sale the product in market because of changed consumers preferences. Packaging is also one of the most important factors that influence the buying decision at the point of sale that s where it turns into an essential part of sales process. The intention of this study is to analyse that how packaging influences the consumer buying behaviour This research will identify the relationship between consumer buying process as the main variable of the study and some independent variables like packaging colour, printed information, packaging material, design of wrapper, printed information, brand image, and innovation and practicality that help consumers in their decision buying process. Key Words: Product, Packaging, Material, Data, Market, Consumer. Introduction: The globalization of the economy has made necessary for manufacturers to present their products in an attractive manner in order not to only differentiate their products from the competitors products but also as an instrument to boost up it sale volume. There are number of ways to attract the eyes of public toward product. Out of these ways one of the important ways is packaging of product in a so attractive way so it easily pull up the customers intention. Packaging acts as the language of product and provides necessary information regarding the product to customers. In other words packaging is the primary means of identifying a product out of the crowed of products in a market. Packaging is an important tool in market to create a brand image of the product either at domestic or foreign level which helps in increasing sales. Secondly packaging help in the protection of product from number of risk factors during transportation and hoarding process. The role of packaging becomes so important at present time that it is not possible to sale the product without a good packing. Companies must understand what influences consumers in their consumer buying process. They must also understand what factors influences the buying behaviour and what is the role of the packaging elements toward buying decision process of consumers during their purchase decision. Market research helps companies to create the right packaging for a product, as well as the packaging elements that might be of importance to consumers. Literary Review: Kotler (2003), defines packaging as all the activities of designing and producing the container for a product. Packaging can be defined as the wrapping material around a consumer item that serves to contain, identify, describe, protect, display, promote and otherwise make the product marketable. Relationship between Packaging and Consumers buying behaviour Page 10

2 Klein Burke (2001) and Silayoi (2004) posited that, packaging works as a tool for differentiation, i.e. helps consumers to choose the product from wide range of similar products, stimulates customers buying behavior. Thus package performs an important role in marketing communications and could be treated as one of the most important factors influencing consumer s purchase decision. Charles W. Lamb et al., (2011), in their book Essentials of Marketing think that packaging has four distinct marketing functions. It contains and protects the product. It promotes the product. It helps consumers use the product and finally, packaging facilitates recycling and reduces environmental damage. Therefore, packaging does more than just protecting the company s products. It also helps in developing the image of the product in consumer mind. So, failing to pay attention to the design of the packaging can decrease the chances of being visible and attractive, which can result in using sales. Shah (2013) labelling is one of the most visible parts of product and an important element of the marketing mix. The information on packaging is an important component since it can support marketing communication strategies of companies, establish brand image and identity. Ricardo (2008) has much work on the feature of the perception and value of the product. According to him packaging help in choosing in choosing the product when there is a lot of uncertainty and thus they trust on good attribute of the product packaging. Objective of Study: This paper tries to analyse and find out the following objectives. 1. To check the effect of packaging elements on the buying behaviour. 2. To identify the elements, which should be highlighted while design the packaging. 3. To explore the relationship between packaging and consumers purchase intention. 4. To examine the effect of poor packaging on purchase intention of consumers and level of market share of an organization. Research Methodology: 1. Population for study For the purpose of this research study, the target population were the customers visit in the retail, wholesale shops and shopping malls. As a result, customers randomly selected from the entire population to obtain the sufficient knowledge. 2. Data Collection This involves the use of primary and secondary sources of data. The primary source involves the use of questionnaire while the secondary data incorporates the use of journals, periodicals and the internet. 3. Sample Size Total 200 customers are selected on randomly basis for a period of one week to carry on the research. These 200 persons belong to different age group, different occupation, have a different gender and difference in education level. Relationship between Packaging and Consumers buying behaviour Page 11

3 Parameters Class Numbers Percentage(%) Gender Male Female Age Group( In years) and above Occupation Students Employees House wives Education Level Below Graduation Above Graduation Table1. Respondent classification on different criteria 4. Tool of data collection The main tool used in gathering the necessary information from the sources of data used is questionnaire method. The questionnaire consists of questions designed to obtain information as relating to relationship that exist between packaging and consumer s purchase behaviour. Research analysis: Research study indicates the following different elements of packaging of a product. Packaging color- Color of packaging is important and creates differentiation between one company products from other. Packaging color draw attention of the consumers the more the color attractive the more consumer will like it. Different competitor use different color combinations like white, black use for power, blue for trust, red for energy, green for balance, orange, yellow, purple they have different meaning according to the consumer perception. Packaging Material- Material of packaging is important element which prevents the product from loss. High quality material used in packaging protects the product from moisture, heat, dust and from others risk. Font Style- Font is important element of packaging which attract the customer attention. Large size and attractive style font catch great attention. Design of Label- Packaging is used for identification of the product. Label design Play an important role in attracting the consumer. For example Children are likely more sensitive in case of label design contain the images of famous cartoon characters. Printed Information- It contains all the information related to the product quality, price, description, manufacturing date, manufactures name, address and so on. Data Interpretation and Finding: Data is collected from respondents with the help of following of well-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire is prepare on Likert five point scale, which have following parameter scale Strongly disagree ( 1 point) Disagree (2 point) Relationship between Packaging and Consumers buying behaviour Page 12

4 Neutral (3 point) Agree ( 4 point) Strongly Agree ( 5 point) The response of different respondent is presented in following table. Questions SD D N A SA Packaging color put effect on consumer behavior at the time of purchase? Label of the package help in communication of more information? Packaging material help in protection of product from losses? Packaging help in creating the brand image in public mind? Design of product create urge in consumer mind to purchase the same? Packaging help in making differentiations between competitors product? Customers prefer packaged product as compare to others in spite of high price charged? Packaging must be Re-cycle able? Seller should make innovations in packaging style? Packaging is a tool of publicity? Packaging of product increase the price of product? Do you think information provided on packaged product is reliable? Poor packaging is not fruitful in achieving sale target? Conclusion: Results of research study regarding the relationship between packaging and consumer s buying behavior shows the following conclusions: Packaging is the one of the most valuable tool in today s marketing communications and has positive impact on consumer s buying behavior. There should be evaluation and re-evaluation of the quality of their packages in order to explore all the opportunity accrued to packaging concept through policy formulation and implementation. The packaging color helps consumers differentiate their favorite brands, and for companies it helps to catch consumers attention and interest. So, color as well as other packaging elements makes the marketing offer more eye-catching and attractive, as well as differentiating it from other products. Bringing innovation in the packaging design also increase the value of the product in the consumer mind. From the empirical findings both practicality and innovative packaging are important during the buying process since it gives value to the product. Packaging should be neat and clean because poor packaging of product is not helpful in catching the eyes of customers. Amount of money spend on this kind of packaging is just a wasteful activity and no result to business. Relationship between Packaging and Consumers buying behaviour Page 13

5 So at last I can say due to its unique attractions, packaging act as a highly effective persuasive tool at the decision-making stage of purchase and thus facilitate decision-making process. This may be the reason why some experts of marketing called it the finisher of sales. References: 1. Ali, H., Chaudhri, S.I., Ali, H., Tasneem, A., and Ali, H., Human Capital as Determinant of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Pakistan. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 17 (7): Keller, K.L., Choosing Brand Elements to build Brand Equity. Strategic Brand Management. 3rd ed. Delhi: Dorling Kindersley. Pp Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing management (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 4. Peter, J. P., & Olson, J. C. (2010). Consumer behavior marketing strategy (9th ed.). Singapore: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. 5. P.H.K.Prathiraja and A.Ariya wardana (2003), impact of nutritional labeling on consumer buying behavior, Sri Lankan Journal of agricultural economics. Vol. 5, No. 1, Rita, K. (2009). Impact of package elements on consumer purchase. Journal of Brand Management, 13(2), Shah, Ahmad & Ahmad (2013), Role of Packaging in Consumer Buying Behavior A study of University Students of Peshawar Region KPK Pakistan,Vol1. Issue Silayoi, P. and Speece, M. (2007), The importance Of Packaging attributes: a conjoint analysis approach, European Journal of Marketing, Smith, P.R. & Taylor, J., Packaging. In Marketing Communications. London: Kogan Page Limited. Pp Speece, M. (2004). Packaging and purchase decisions: An exploratory study on the impact of involvement level and time pressure. British Food Journal, Underwood, Robert L, Klein, Noreen M., Burke, Raymond R (2001). Packaging communication: Attention effects of product imagery. Journal of product & brand management, 10: Wells, L. E., Farley, H., & Armstrong, G. A. (2007). The importance of packaging design for own-label food brands. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 35 (9), Relationship between Packaging and Consumers buying behaviour Page 14